The Dilemma of Burma

                As SOF interviewed Sylvester Stallone about his new movie, Rambo, the Saffron Revolution broke out in Burma. For eight days, protests for democracy led by Buddhist monks were covered by CNN and other news agencies. Then the dictatorship launched a brutal crackdown, including raids on Buddhist monasteries. In the course of this crackdown, a Japanese journalist was shot and killed, and a Burmese soldier took his camera.

                Democracy has been brutally crushed in Burma. In 1962, a military coup deposed the then-democratic government. Since then, attempts for democracy have been smashed by a ruthless dictatorship. That dictatorship finally agreed to hold elections after a 1988 uprising. In 1990, the democratic opposition won those elections decisively, only to see the military government refuse to honor the results, placing Daw Aung San Suu Kyi under house arrest. In each of these cases, the dictatorship has not hesitated to use deadly force and has proven shockingly resistant to international pressure. Perhaps Stallone hit on the crux of the problem, “What country in the world today except Burma – I don’t think even Korea would do it – would shoot down religious figures?”

                In essence, this is what we are dealing with when it comes to Burma: They are willing to go very far to maintain their power – further than we seem to be willing to go to end that dictatorship’s reign. Sanctions have been in place for years, and the dictatorship has managed to muddle through them at worst. Protests at their embassies have done little – except generate media coverage. We have seen what they are willing to do to their own people in a protest – as well as foreign journalists who may send out news that the thugs who have hijacked Burma for over 45 years might not like. Some people expect protests to scare the Burmese dictatorship. Are they kidding themselves?

                What incentive does the Burmese junta have to come to the table? We have played sanctions and moral condemnation cards for 17 years since the elections that the democracy movement won. To describe the results as disappointing is an understatement. Add to this the fact that the Burmese dictatorship is even willing to go so far as to kill foreign journalists and Buddhist monks.

                How can anyone think that more sanctions will work when these have already failed to dissuade them from brutally cracking down on the Saffron Revolution? Sanctions are not the answer. It’s going to take something a bit more direct.

                It’s time to deal with reality. The cold, hard fact is that 17 years of non-violence did not get us any closer to restoring a democratic government in Burma. If we want to get concessions from the Burmese dictatorship (ideally, agreeing to step down), violence – or the credible threat of violence – may be the only option we have.

                But even then, Burma, for all the evils that its dictatorship visits upon its own people, is not threatening other countries, is not trying to acquire weapons of mass destruction, and it has not attacked us or regional allies. We have a global war on terror to deal with, dealing with folks who wish to do all three.

                The sad fact is that we have bigger fish to fry than these thugs in Rangoon. Washington knows it, and so does the Burmese junta. So for now, we cannot do much, if anything.